Ice-cream

This ice-cream is very rich and a real treat. It’s made from my favourite half crème fraîche, half double cream custard base and is very easy to scoop straight from the freezer – an added bonus. Using a little muscovado sugar creates a subtle caramel flavour which balances out the slight bitterness from the orange rind.

Heat the milk and vanilla essence and orange rind in a pan till just below boiling point. Leave off the heat to infuse for an hour.

reheat the milk again to just below boiling point (when the milk shivers). Leave to cool for 10 minutes.

While the milk is cooling, whisk the egg yolks and both types of sugar in a separate bowl with an electric whisk till pale and thickened – when you lift the whisk it should drop forming thickish ribbons.

carefully pour a little of the hot milk into the egg yolk mix whilst whisking, ensuring that the eggs don’t cook. Continue to pour in all the milk, whisking continuously.

Before the next stage of cooking fill your sink part way with cold water and place a bowl in it, big enough to hold the ice-cream mix.

Pour the mixture back into a heatproof pan and place it under a low heat for about 8-10 minutes, stirring continuously. The mixture should thicken slightly (to the point where it thinly coats the back of a wooden spoon). This process can happen very quickly and if you’re not careful it will curdle! If you have a thermometer it should reach just below 86C.

Once thickened quickly pour the custard into the bowl and place the bowl in the sink so the cold water surrounds it. Whisk the mixture continuously till it has cooled.

Once cool, whisk in the double cream and crème fraîche.

Leave the mix in the fridge till cold.

Once cold, pour the mix through a sieve to remove the orange rind and then into your ice-cream maker. Follow the manufacturers instructions.

Once frozen, transfer into a freeze proof container with a lid (I use a cake tin with a hinge lid)

If you don’t have an ice-cream maker place the mix in the freezer and stir it every 1-2 hours to break up larger ice crystals.

A friend and I went fruit picking a few days ago and got a little carried away when we spotted the raspberry bushes – we ended up with 3.5 kgs! As a result I’ve made 15 jars of raspberry jam and also came up with this ice-cream recipe. The vodka flavour is not detectable, it simply lowers the freezing temperature so that it remains creamy. The white chocolate shards are fun and easy to make, as well as being really beautiful.

Reserve a large handful of raspberries and place the rest in a blender. Once blended, pour the raspberry mix into a sieve and reserve the seed-free coulis, keeping in the fridge till needed.

Heat the milk and glucose syrup in a pan till just below boiling point. Leave off the heat for about ten minutes.

While the milk is cooling a little, whisk the egg yolks and sugar in a separate bowl with an electric whisk till paler and thickened – when you lift the whisk it should drop forming thickish ribbons.

carefully pour a little of the hot milk into the egg yolk mix whilst whisking, ensuring that the eggs don’t cook. Continue to pour in all the milk, whisking continuously.

Before the next stage of cooking fill your sink part way with cold water. and place a sieve on top of a bowl big enough to hold the ice-cream mix.

Pour the mixture back into a heatproof pan and place it under a low heat for about 8-10 minutes, stirring continuously. The mixture should thicken slightly (to the point where it thinly coats the back of a wooden spoon). This process can happen very quickly and if you’re not careful it will curdle!

Once thickened quickly pour the custard through the sieve into the bowl and place the bowl in the sink so the cold water surrounds it. Whisk the mixture continuously till it has cooled.

Once cool, whisk in the double cream, crème fraîche and finally the raspberry coulis.

Pour the mix into your ice-cream maker and follow the manufacturers instructions.

Once thickened and ready for the freezer, add the final large handful of raspberries in the ice-cream maker. Allow the raspberries to be crushed and mixed a little, then pour the ice-cream into a metal airtight tin and place in the freezer to finish firming up.

If you don’t have an ice-cream maker, just pour the mix directly into your metal tin, place in the freezer, and stir it every 1-2 hours to break up larger ice crystals.

Remove the ice-cream from the freezer about five minutes before serving, to allow it to soften a little.

White chocolate shards

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Melt the white chocolate in a bowl suspended over simmering water.

Once melted, leave the chocolate to rest for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the pistachios on a baking dish and put them in the oven for about 7-10 minutes, till toasted a little..

Pour the chocolate onto a baking sheet liner and spread out in a thin layer with a spatula.

Crush the pistachios a little with a pestle and mortar.

With a paintbrush, flick the food dye over the chocolate and swirl it a little with a tooth pick.

Sprinkle the crushed pistachios over the white chocolate.

Leave the chocolate slab to cool to room temperature, then score it a little with a knife, so it’s easier to break up into the right sized shards later.

Place in the fridge till cold.

When you serve the ice-cream, take the slab out of the fridge and break it up into pieces.

I’m a big lover of ginger, especially in the colder months – it’s so warming and feels like it does some good. Stem ginger works particularly well with créme fraîche in custard based ice-cream. The combination off-sets a lot of the sweetness and richness, which I often find a little too tricky to deal with in creamy desserts… even more so at the end of a big wintery meal.

Ingredients

450ml whole milk

0.5 tsp vanilla extract

6 egg yolks

170g unrefined caster sugar (I use vanilla sugar)

300ml double cream

300ml crème fraîche

14 small pieces stem ginger (I used the Biona brand)

1.5 tbsp stem ginger syrup

Method

Heat the milk and vanilla essence in a pan till just below boiling point. Leave off the heat for about ten minutes.

While the milk is cooling a little, whisk the egg yolks and sugar in a separate bowl with an electric whisk till paler and thickened – when you lift the whisk it should drop forming thickish ribbons.

carefully pour a little of the hot milk into the egg yolk mix whilst whisking, ensuring that the eggs don’t cook. Continue to pour in all the milk, whisking continuously.

Before the next stage of cooking fill your sink part way with cold water. and place a sieve on top of a bowl big enough to hold the ice-cream mix.

Pour the mixture back into a heatproof pan and place it under a low heat for about 8-10 minutes, stirring continuously (I use a heat distributor mat). The mixture should thicken slightly (to the point where it thinly coats the back of a wooden spoon). This process can happen very quickly and if you’re not careful it will curdle!

Once thickened, quickly pour the custard through the sieve into the bowl and place the bowl in the sink so the cold water surrounds it. Whisk the mixture continuously till it has cooled.

Once cool, whisk in the double cream and crème fraîche.

Place the ice-cream mix in a blender with 12 pieces of stem ginger and the syrup. Blend till smooth. *If you don’t have a large blender, you can make a concentrate syrup by whizzing the stem ginger and syrup on its own and then stirring it into the mix.

Try the mix, it should taste noticeably of ginger.

Finely chop the final 2 pieces of stem ginger and stir in.

Pour the mix into your ice-cream maker and follow the manufacturers instructions. It may not freeze as well as normal ice-cream due to the ginger syrup, but it will eventually when it’s transferred to a metal tin and put in the freezer (I use a rectangular cake tin).

If you don’t have an ice-cream maker, just pour the mix directly into your metal tin, place in the freezer, and stir it every 1-2 hours to break up larger ice crystals.

Remove the ice-cream from the freezer about five minutes before serving, to allow it to soften a little.

Whenever I go to Brighton and I’m in the Lanes I treat myself to a big frozen yogurt from Lick (which has sadly closed down!). The ‘Froyo’ is more acidic and clean-tasting than your normal ice-cream and doesn’t leave you feeling too porky – which is rather deceiving given my preference for gutsy toppings. Last year I was given an ice-cream maker for my birthday. It’s a Cuisinart ice-cream deluxe model and is different to others in that the bowl rotates rather than the paddle which means, unlike my previous model, the motor doesn’t give up when the ice-cream starts to thicken. I base my frozen yoghurt on the SNOG recipe, but add a lot less agave nectar and use full-fat yoghurt rather than the zero-fat malarky which SNOG proposes.